Leeds Bradford Airport revamp must be blocked, says its former chair – Yorkshire Post Letters

I AM proud of the time I spent as part of the travel industry. From humble holiday rep to Chair of the Board of Leeds Bradford Airport, I took great pleasure in enabling thousands of families to take a break from everyday life to spend quality time together, experience new cultures, and relax in the sun.

This background means I’m well aware of the thousands of jobs that depend on the habit of us Brits to escape our unpredictable weather for more pleasant climes. That habit will be hard to break, but that unpredictable weather could get a whole lot worse if we don’t change our behaviour. How we manage that change will have a big impact on those travel jobs.

During my time at Leeds Bradford Airport, I could only have dreamed of bringing forward plans for a shiny new terminal such as that now going before Leeds Plans Panel today. How strange that I now feel it must be stopped.

It’s not that our local airport doesn’t deserve 21st century facilities, because it does. The issue is that the sleek, climate friendly structure offered by the airport comes with strings attached: permission for the airport to almost double its flight operations, and thereby ramp up its carbon emissions. How can this be reconciled with climate change carbon reduction commitments locally and nationally?

The air travel industry is at a crossroads. Covid has grounded aircraft fleets. Airlines and travel operators have made unprecedented losses.

Meanwhile, on the horizon, is an expectation of significant changes to travel taxes in the hope of making a positive impact on the carbon emissions of an industry powered by fossil fuels.

This week the Northern Powerhouse Partnership branded politicians who opposed the terminal and expansion investment at Leeds Bradford as irresponsible. Isn’t it more responsible to stimulate investment in sustainable tourism on home ground than enabling people to take their money overseas and pollute the environment to boot?

The airline industry insist that technology is advancing all the time to reduce the carbon impact of flying.

I sincerely hope that this comes true soon and we can continue our continental holidays safe in the knowledge we’re not destroying our planet.

Let’s wait until then before building a terminal to accommodate it.

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